novelty or ingenuity-power or elegance-the dose proved too much even for my iron nerves. My uneasiness was such, that at last I fairly lost temper, and seizing my hat, escaped, as best I might, from the Speculative Society of Edinburgh. My companions on each side of me had been asleep for an hour, but my removal awakened them; and, after rubbing their eyes, and looking round them for a moment, they both had the good sense to follow my example.

On looking at my watch, I found it was eleven o'clock, and I could not help reproaching myself a good deal for the time I had been wasting. The transition from this scene of solemn and stupid drivelling, to the warm fire-side of Mrs Barclay,— her broiled haddocks, her scolloped oysters, and her foaming tankards, was one of the most refreshing things I have ever experienced. But I see it is now late; so adieu for the present.

P. M.

I AM extremely delighted to observe how much effect the craniological remarks, so liberally, yet so modestly, distributed over the surface of my correspondence, have been able to produce upon you. I once thought you had the organ of stubbornness and combativeness very luxuriantly brought out, but shall from henceforth be inclined to think I had been mistaken

in my observation of your head. My best advice to you in the meantime is, to read daily with diligence, but not with blind credulity, in Dr Spurzheim's book, which, I rejoice to hear, you have purchased. Pass your fingers gently around the region of your head, whenever any

new idea is suggested to you by his remarks, and I doubt not you will soon be a firm believer, that "there are more things in heaven and earth than we once dreamt of in our philosophy."

The aversion which you say you at first felt for the science is, however, a natural, and therefore I cannot help regarding it as a very excusable sort of prejudice. The very names which have been bestowed upon the science-Cranioscopy and Craniology-to say nothing of the still coarser Schädellehre (or skull-doctrine) of its first doctor and professor, are disagreeable terms, on account of their too direct and distinct reference to the bones. They bring at once before the imagination a naked skull, and in persons who have not been trained to the callousness of the dissecting-room, conceptions of a nature so strictly anatomical, can never fail to excite a certain feeling of horror and disgust. I am glad to find that this feeling had been sanctioned by antiquity; for, in some quotations from Athenæus, which fell casually into my hands the other day, it is expressly mentioned, that the Greeks considered it as "improper to speak of the physical substances of the head." I perfect

ly enter into the spirit of tastefulness and wisdom, which suggested such a maxim to that most intellectual people. Among them the doctrine of pure materialism had not merely been whispered in mystery in the contemplative gardens of Epicurus; it had gone abroad over the surface of the people, and contaminated and debased their spirit. The frail fabric of their su perstitious faith presented but too obvious a mark for the shafts of infidel wit, and it was no wonder that they who were wise enough to feel the necessity of guarding this fabric, should have possessed no very accurate notions concerning the true limits of its bulwarks. In our days, however, there is assuredly no reason for being so very timorous; and I think a philosophical person like you should, bond fide, set yourself to get rid of a prejudice which is no longer entitled to be regarded as either a necessary or a convenient one.

It is much to be wished notwithstanding, that some name could be found for this admirable science, which would give less offence even to those who are rather disposed than otherwise to give it its fair chance of thriving in the world. I have been thinking a great while on this subject, and have balanced in my own mind the

merits of more oscopies and ologies, than I care to trouble you with repeating. Craniology itself, over and above the general and natural prejudice I have already talked of, labours under a secondary, an adventitious, and a merely vulgar prejudice, derived from the ignorant and blundering jokes which have been connected with it by the writers of Reviews and Magazines. It is wonderful how long such trifling things retain their influence; but I would hope this noble science is not to be utterly hanged (like a dog,) because an ill name has been given to it. Sometimes, after the essence of a man's opinion has been proved to be false and absurd, even to his own satisfaction, it is necessary, before he can be quite persuaded to give it up, that we should allow a few words to be sacrificed. These are the scape-goats which are tossed relentlessly over the rock, after they are supposed to be sufficiently imbued and burthened with the sins of the blundering intellect that dictated them. And such, I doubt not, will, in the issue, be the fortune of poor, derided, despised, but innocent, although certainly somewhat rude and intractable Craniology-Cranioscopy, (particularly since Dr. Roget has undertaken to blacken its reputation in the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica,)